Emraan Hashmi on OTT boom - It keeps even the theatrical business on its toes | Exclusive

Emraan Hashmi has come back to the long-format space after nearly five years with Showtime. The actor made his OTT debut back in 2019 with Netflix's Bard of Blood, an espionage thriller. Now, he is playing the role of a big film producer in the upcoming Disney+ Hotstar series, backed by Karan Johar. Now, during an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Emraan discussed his vision for the medium after five long years.

Empowering audience choices

The actor exclusively told us, "I think it's empowering the audience with more choices, and that's good for any kind of business. It keeps even the theatrical business on its toes, because when you have competition in the market, I think it also enhances that. Theatrical is my first love and will always be. But I think what OTT has done by coming on the scene is that it's given actors who yearn to kind of extend their craft beyond the usual; the characters that we play in theatricals are confined to probably a two-hour frame or window; you don't get that kind of extended arc of a character play out."

Calling himself a "greedy actor," Emraan went on to say, "I think for me, I've always maintained that I want to do as many mediums as I can because it just adds to my expertise and experience as an artist. So, in OTT, when you have seven episodes, or 10 episodes, it gives you that much more playout. I'm a greedy actor; I want to see more of myself on screen, so it also has more of an impact."

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OTT: A platform for experimentation and growth

The actor added, "And also, I think OTT is more experimental in the way that it's, of course, entertaining a huge audience out there; the numbers are there on OTT, but it's also coming out with cutting-edge ideas that probably theatrical is lacking at this point in time. We're not taking, we're not gutsy enough to put out something really, with a leap of faith or something experimental theatrical, but all the experiments are being done in OTT, and that for you as an artist, you can always see growth."

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The Disney+ Hotstar premiere of Showtime is scheduled for March 8, 2024.

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